Everything— from the memory of that fateful afternoon that she and Ren Ashta had taken the wrong turn into the wrong alley full of troubled teenagers, to the memory of her rapists fleeing the scene, after she had hit her head hard in the asphalt he'd enough to receive severe brain damage— it was all coming back to Hakuno through a torrent of memory fragments that were playing themselves out before her, within the endless white void where her soul itself had been rebuilding itself outside the realms of the universes where she had been purposefully placed within.
Sitting down with her head buried in between her knees and her arms wrapped around her closely-tucked legs, the brown haired teen was too overwhelmed from the truth to even consider how odd it was that her eyes were free from any tears. "I was only a child when my life was taken from me… Seven years. Seven years I was robbed from the experiences one would have when entering the stages out of adolescence and into puberty; instead of getting my first kiss or going to any sort of monumental ceremony such as a simple school dance, I was wasting away within the stark-white halls of a psychiatric ward… My entire life was wasted," Hakuno spoke with a monotone voice, as a tall older man with swept back white hair and an a regal beard that covered his jaw stood solemnly before her; his ashamed eyes looking down at his shiny black dress shoes, as a heavy sigh escaped from his wrinkled lips.
"… I should have been there to protect you, sweetheart. Words… Words aren't enough to justify the grief that I've been carrying with me for all this time. I never meant to prioritize my work over your life, Hakuno; I never meant to hurt you," Dr. Arima Kishinami said through the raspy voice of the powerful magus that he had chosen to be the avatar for his soul to control. "I don't expect you to forgive me, my dear daughter; I only ask that you leave the past behind, as impossible of a task as it sounds."
Hearing the words spoken by her forlorn father, Hakuno furrowed her eyes gently as she slowly looked up past the tops over her sleeved forearms; her brown eyes staring accusingly at the old man, who wouldn't dare look her back in the eye. "Your words are that of hypocrisy, father. How do you expect me to move on from the past, when all of this mess came from yours and Levi's inability to accept the world for its faults," Hakuno said with a twinge of sorrow in her voice, while watching as the old magus flinched from how deep her words cut into his broken heart. "You both created the "Moon-Cell"… Levi wanted to collect data from the experiment, and you were hoping to give me a new life elsewhere… He wanted to pursue research, and you wanted to save me; both very well-intended pursuits, and both having gone so, so wrong… You're as much to blame for this as he is."
Taking every word that his daughter spoke to him to heart, Dr. Kishinami dared not to argue with the fractured soul of his daughter, who he had put through so much pain in trying to save her through the Moon-Cell; having hoped that by winning the Holy Grail Tournament, she would be able to be reborn after being absorbed into its CORE. "It… It wasn't supposed to end that way for you; BB was programmed to save you at any cost… She was what was going to resurrect you— have you reborn into a new body, where you could finally be free from the pain that I couldn't save you from… I… I should have known better than to trust Levi…"
"And yet, you still did; regardless of knowing what he did, and what his plans were," Hakuno shot back, without any empathy in her voice as she raised her head further up from her huddle position; slowly picking herself up from the ground, as her father turned his head with shame written all over his avatar's face. "I saw everything while I was in the Moon-Cell's CORE… I saw what Levi did to those boys who raped me; how he tortured them, and removed pieces of their flesh, all to kill them as slowly as he could— not for the sake of a vindictive justice, but all so he could collect their very souls, while keeping record of their souls' photonic measurements… And you helped him do it… Why? Why didn't you stop him when you had the chance to, father? You could have turned him into the Clock Tower, but instead you… You helped him, even after you saw what he was capable of."
Tightening his fingers into balled fists that shook by his side, Dr. Kishinami's frown deepened as the sins of his failures began to crawl along his back. "Because Hakuno, I…! I was a coward; too weak to ever go against him, and I was blinded by the promises he made to me; about how the Moon-Cell could save you! I'm sorry I-I was…! S-So desperate to have my little girl back to the way she used to be; to how you should have been," Dr. Kishinami said tearfully; his voice became choked up, as his avatar began to wobble before losing balance.
Falling onto one knee as the guilt that had been eating him for years gripped what was left of his shattered heart, Dr. Kishinami still dared not gaze up into the eyes of his betrayed daughter, who was now standing over him with her eyes beaming down upon his avatar. "Y-You were all I had left, Hakuno… I-I promised your mother on her deathbed that I would protect you at any cost necessary… And I failed her… I failed you, my dearest daughter… I've failed everyone— including myself," Dr. Kishinami whispered out in a broken voice, as remorseful tears began to drip down the wrinkled cheeks of his avatar.
Beginning to shed tears as well— not for herself or for her father, but for the victims who had been put through hell by Dr. Ashta— Hakuno raised one hand up to cover her eyes, while her other arm wrapped itself around her midsection. "E… Emiya… R-Rin… S… S-Sakura… Ritsuka, R-Ritsuko… C-Chris and A-Abby… R… R-Ren…" Hakuno whispered mournfully; each name spoken aloud by his heartbroken daughter made Dr. Kishinami want to die that much more.
"I… I know… I… I could have… I… W-What's done has been done; all that I can do now for them and their grieving families is free them. When this is all done and over with, they can move on to whatever peace awaits for them in the Swirl of the Root… And I'll gladly accept whatever eternal punishment awaits for me in death," Dr. Kishinami said with a quiet and elongated sigh.
Frustrated still with what she knew, Hakuno tightened her fingers into fists as she clenched her jaw in tearful frustration. "You mean except for Ren; isn't that right…?" Hakuno whispered bitterly, as she narrowed her eyelids at her remorseful father's avatar. "Why…? Why do they get to go, and he has to stay…? Him and I are both victims in yours and Levi's experiments, father: both of us had our lives taken from us by that god-awful incident— two sides of the same coin… So why aren't you trying to "save" him, like you're trying to "save" me?!" Hakuno demanded in a booming voice, as she reached down to grab handfuls of the black cloak her father's avatar had draped over his black robes; pulling him up, and feeling even more enraged that he still refused to look her in the eye— to gaze upon the pain that he had unintentionally inflicted upon her.
Defeated, and a mere shadow of his former self, Dr. Kishinami took in a long and deep breath before slowly exhaling it past his avatar's wrinkled lips. "Lorenzo, he… He's too far gone, Hakuno; after you were attacked, he… He's not the same sweet, loving boy who you remember him to be; he is but a demented puppet that knows only to serve his father… And I… I-I can't afford to have him undo everything that I've sacrificed so much to have done! I'm so CLOSE to ending it all…" Dr. Kishinami said in a hushed voice, as he hung his head in sorrow while still being held up by his emotionally damaged daughter. "… I couldn't save you then, Hakuno… So I beg of you that you let me save you now."
Dressed in formal attire, Ren Ashta made sure that he was at least fifteen minutes early to his appointed meeting that his father had scheduled him in for after breakfast. His chest felt as though an invisible claw was gripping his rib cage tightly as he approached the door to his father's home office; a shaky breath escaping his parted lips, as the seventeen year-old teenager fixed the knot of his red neck-tie, before knocking his closed fist against the wooden surface of the door before him.
From the otherside of the door, the seventeen year-old teen heard his father answering him with a short and curt voice saying, "Come in," before grabbing down on the silver door handle to swing the door outward into the hallway slowly. There, sitting behind his lavish desk, and behind several floating holographic screens that were being broadcasted by the mana-created mana-projector that he had built into the center of his mahogany desk, sat Ren's father: Leviticus Ashta— the so-called smartest man in the universe.
Feeling more like a servant than a son, Ren made sure to keep his head slightly down as he walked uneasily into Levi's office— coming to a stop, only once he made it to the end of the doctor's custom-built desk. "… Good morning, father," Ren said with a nervous smile on his face; looking up through his blue eyes at the unimpressed doctor sitting across from him, who momentarily addressed his existence with an unimpressed glance through his holographic screens, before immediately going back to work on them by tapping away at their interfaces.
"The fruits of my labor are blooming, son; their sweet-bloody aroma has attracted the attention of my target," Levi mused with pride in himself; a smile formed across his handsome face, as he flipped one holographic screen around with his finger tips, before scooting it over toward Ren.
Nervously, Ren reached up with one hand to pinch the bottom of the holographic screen that his father had given him to observe. Furrowing his eyes, Ren saw what appeared to be a bright scarlet ball of light in what seemed to be a starless night sky— the way it was producing blacken ash that rose from its aura of crimson-red while what seemed like black veins that were vaguely running along its cratered surface made Ren feel dread just from seeing it from the holographic screen in his grasp. "… What the bloody hell am I looking at, father?"
Seemingly taking enjoyment from his son's reaction, Levi's lips slightly grinned as he sat there with his hands still; staring at the way his son seemed disturbed with what he was showing him, before finally waving away the organized clutter of holographic screens that were separating him from the teenager. "What you're looking at is the reason why I've tasked you and your associates with establishing important canon events within that artificial universe that Kishinami and I created… It calls itself "Brunestud of the Crimson Moon", but for simplicity's sake, Kishinami and I have dubbed it as the "Crimson Moon"," Levi replied in his calm, deep voice; watching as his son's initial reaction slowly became more intrigued than disgusted.
"… Did you and Uncle Arima invent it, father?" Ren asked with a curious voice, as it was expected to assume such a thing whenever he or anyone else saw something phantasmic that couldn't be explained easily.
Shaking his head, Levi shrugged his shoulders slightly as he rested his elbows down on his desk, while his hands were pressed together in front of his stunning face. "No, son; I did no such thing. For you see, the Crimson Moon is native to another universe; a universe where celestial bodies are sentient gods-like beings known as "Ultimate Ones". Although, through my observations on its origin universe, along with its sister universes that have variants of its kind, they're also known as "Types"… For example, this one in particular is "Type Moon", while Venus is called "Type Venus"; or, in its unique case, it's also revered as "V/V", but that's unimportant to this conversation," Levi trailed off— having caught himself going on a tangent, which Ren always found to be interesting and phenomenal each time he let on more than he was willing to say. "Anyway… Before I get into, have you ever stopped to ask yourself why I've been having you and everyone else participating in this project? Or… Or have you been subjecting them all to suffering, to fulfill that little "itch" of yours?"
Freezing up, Ren went wide-eyed and felt his heart beginning to race in a panic as the color from his face drained. Looking up silently at his father, who was breaking his stotism with an entertained smirk forming across his domineering face, Ren tried thinking up of a lie to cover up his own wrongdoings, but felt unraveled underneath his father's piercing cold eyes— having been caught in a lie, before he could even think of one in his head. Looking away with guilt and discomfort written all over his saddened face, Ren swallowed the lump in his throat before letting out a hollow breath through his parted lips. "… No father; I… I never think to question your orders."
"Mhmm… As you should," Levi muttered with a cruel tone in his voice, before letting the moment of enjoyment pass for him as he got back on track with what he was saying. "The world of fantasy that Kishinami and I made is as real as any, but the key difference is that it runs more like a simulation than anything else; without any souls present within it to act as a medium for the "Swirl of the Root" to reach and bring life to the universe, it'll forever be stuck in time when none of us have our consciousness transported there. This is known as "Quantum Time-Locking"; it's prevalent to every timeline that's networked into each separate universe that's tied into "Swirl of the Root"— including our own timeline," Levi explained articulately in his proper accent.
"… "Quantum Time-Locking"," Ren repeated back under his breath; the sting of his father's words still making him feel small and helpless, yet his own growing curiosity and instilled fear prompted him to stay engaged with Levi's words. "So… It's similar to whenever someone pauses a video game… Since you said it's prevalent to our timeline, does…? Does that mean it'll happen to our world eventually?" Ren asked with dread still bubbling up inside him, as the thought of their existence being subjected to freezing and never continuing on made him feel closer to the brink of having an existential crisis.
Nodding his head, Levi let out a small chuckle as he mused sophisticatedly, "Time comes for those who are obedient to its subjective nature," as he allowed a moment of silence to follow suit, all for the purpose of letting the truth of their timeline's eventual demise settle into his already traumatized son. "However, I am in control of fate; not the other way around… For you see, in every universe where the Crimson Moon exists, the shared similarity of all its variants comes down to its reason for having come to Earth in the first place. You see, Earth has a collective will of its own; everything within it, including its mana and natural magicka give it a sort of dull but purposeful sentience— similar to that of a tree…"
"… Its will, "Gaia", is a powerful force that's directly tied into the Swirl of the Root itself; it allows it to communicate with the "Ultimate Ones", and for the case of the Crimson Moon, it is a multiversal constant for it to be the one to answer Gaia's call; a call for salvation— salvation from human corruption," Levi said in a darker voice; a throaty-laugh muffled behind his closed-lip smirk, as he watched Ren flinch from his words alone. "Ah… You're beginning to put the pieces together behind why you alone were the perfect candidate to administer those sessions… But for argument's sake, why don't you tell me WHY it had to be you?" Levi asked knowingly, as he intertwined his fingers together while sadistically waiting for his self-loathing son to say the one thing aloud that he constantly tried to hide from himself.
In that moment, the thought of slicing his own wrists open and letting them bleed out within the safety of the bathroom tub seemed far more ideal than admitting his own demons aloud. Had it not been for the control his father had on him, and his very soul itself, Ren would have wordlessly left to do the one thing he had been dreaming about for years. But instead, the troubled teen took in a shaky breath while hiding behind the translucent holographic screen in his hands, as readied himself before finally speaking the words that his father already knew would come out.
"B… Because… B-Because I'm… I'm…" Ren whispered in a raspy voice, while at the same time thinking to himself, 'Fucked up, an evil bastard, I'm a disgusting excuse for a person, my morals are vile, I'm sadistic, I'm sickly perverted, sinful, and if it exists, I'm bounded for Hell once I finally get the bullocks to off myself.' Ren had a colorful expansion of different ways to describe his own twisted soul, but was only able to answer by whispering tearfully out to his father, "Because I'm… I'm c-corrupted, Father…"
Feeling disappointed in what he had heard, Levi rolled his eyes softly while letting out a sigh— his sinister smirk disappearing, as he went back to what he had been saying. "Correct… And though the "reality marble" Kishinami and I created is incapable of producing an Earth capable of a collective will— as NPC lesser gods such as "Earth Mother" and "Chaos God" were all disappointing attempts that led to nothing— the misery your friends and siblings were able to produce were very much real, and through fine tuning I was able to create a photonic message to every Crimson Moon variant that I have record on; the sheer amount of corruption that you've bled into that artificial world was enough to immerse them into believing that they were truly being called by Gaia itself," Levi revealed, while sounding once again proud of himself for having been able to trick not one, but a multitude of gods into believing his red herring.
"... And that brings me to your next assignment, son; one that I wanted to give you in person, rather than through by means of electronic mail," Levi circled back around to, while leaning his back up against the cushioned rest of his office chair. "When you set up for the next session, I want it to just be you and your brother; modify the settings before you start up the reality marble to have it take place several thousands years— within the "Imperial Era"... From there, your brother will take possession of a vulnerable child who lives alone with an older brother… An older brother who beats him, and terrorizes him daily. You have freedom to take control of said brother, and what you want done to him, but it is vital that Christopher is left alone during each night; he'll be the one who every iteration of Crimson Moon will come to— like a moth drawn to a flame…"
"... Continue this, until the fifth night; I've already ensured through my calculations that all variants of the Crimson Moon will arrive then at exactly three-in-the-morning. When that happens, every Crimson Moon variant will merge into a singular entity— a composite form of itself. It will more than likely attempt to connect to Christopher the same way it would with Gaia; during this small window of opportunity, I shall sever all quantum way points, and entrap within the reality marble…"
"... Before I can give you more details of the mission… It's imperative for me to state the real-danger that'll come with this assignment... For you see, the human mind isn't equipped to receive the photonic readings that are used for celestial beings to communicate to one another."
Waking up in a cold sweat, Goblin Slayer took in a deep breath of air as he shot up out of bed; his dusty-rose colored eyes darting around at the cozy bedroom around him. From the pale-yellow wallpaper, the white-painted ceiling, to the oak furniture that made up the shelves and drawers that were placed neatly around the bed frame itself, nothing about the ten year-old's surroundings felt out of place. Regulating his breathing and heart rate while sitting up from underneath his covers, Goblin Slayer was doing his best to calm himself down, as his trembling hands brought his holographic menu up from his hip; the illuminating interface that resembled the one that his father would use.
With BBB standing at the corner of the screen— looking as concerned as a cartoon character like herself was able to express through her chibi features— Goblin Slayer navigated through the interface with shaky finger-movements; bringing up the same folder where his two other memory fragments had been archived. To his confusion, there wasn't only just one additional memory fragment that was stored through the Moon-Cell, but a fourth one as well; one that was listed underneath the on that contained the memory of his father briefly going over what the Crimson Moon was, and what of the importance that came with the assignment needed to contain it.
'Does that mean… Does that mean that the Crimson Moon is here somewhere? Is it what's keeping this world together?' Goblin Slayer wondered to himself with his eyebrows furrowed; recalling to himself that the moon he had seen the other night had been white, and had nothing irregular about it— lacking any nightmarish features that were present in the video of it that his actual father had shown him. 'I… I can't say for certain if it is, or if it isn't… He did say that would only appear on the fifth night, and… And it's the… Fuck, how many days have passed since Melsuine came to me?'
Dwelling more on his situation more with insight, unlike the spiraling depression that followed suit after the confusion of realizing that he wasn't really native to the fantasy world as he thought he had been, Goblin Slayer mentally counted the days up to him having been five; five days of having been in contact with the Moon-Cell, which progressively began to make itself known to him after each passing day since then. It was then that a connection was made in his mind— a connection that filled every inch of him in absolute despair, as though there was an impending doom just now looming over his very soul. "... F-Fuck! FUCK! FUCK!" Goblin Slayer shouted in a flurry of panic and existential dread.
Stumbling out of bed naked, Goblin Slayer was pacing around the brown carpet while gripping handfuls of his own gray hair as the room itself felt as though it was spinning around him. 'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck… Fifth day; it's the fifth fucking day, and tonight is the fifth fucking… FUCK!' Goblin Slayer's mind screamed in anguish, as dropped to the carpet on his knees while feeling as though his world was crumbling in on itself. "What does that mean, what does that mean, what does that mean…?! What's going to happen, what's going to happen, what's going to…? FUCK!" Goblin Slayer screamed out from the top of his lungs, as he fell forward with his fists balled up underneath him; his forehead pressed against the carpet, as his sudden panic attack began to grow worse by the passing though.
Laying there on the ground, with his face inches away from the carpet beneath him, Goblin Slayer didn't have to use his eyes to know that Fairy Knight had appeared beside him in his time of need; her mystique presence and the comfort her aura brought him was more than enough to feel her kneeling down beside him, before he even felt her small hand clamping down comfortingly on his shoulder.
Goblin Slayer was unsure of the amount of time that passed while Fairy Knight knelt beside him; the silence between them was but a medium for the care she had developed for him, since the fateful night she and him became bound to one another. His mind then began to drift away from what unknown fate would carry over to him from his past, and in combination of what would happen if the Crimson Moon appeared hours before the Moon-Cell was theorized to arrive to his world, and instead Goblin Slayer began to lament on how he even got a servant to begin with.
"... Melusine," Goblin Slayer called out in a quiet and eerily calm voice, as he suddenly stopped trembling when a sudden thought came to him.
Kneeling down on one knee with her hand still resting on top of the preteen's shoulder, Melusine watched as Goblin Slayer slowly looked up from the carpeted floor to make contact with her; his facial expression seemed gloom, yet willing to accept whatever answer to whatever question he was about to ask her. "... Yes Master?" She asked in a soothing voice.
"How… How are servants normally summoned? Since I wasn't who initiated whatever ritual it was necessary to bring you here… How did that even happen in the first place?" Goblin Slayer asked with a sickening feeling welling up inside of him, as all he could think about was the part of his most recent memory fragment, where his father was gloating about how he had been able to trick several variants of the Crimson Moon, into heeding his fabricate calling.
Having not seen his most recently viewed memory fragment, nor even knowing he had gotten two more additional ones since the night she took him back to the Oakshire manor, Fairy Knight gave Goblin Slayer a mildly worried frown as she replied with, "What you described is considered the most common way a servant is summoned: by aligning themselves with a magus who they share the most similarities to, and during an event called the "Holy Grail War"... Why are you just asking me this now? What happened? What did you see?"
Not wanting to brush her questions off completely, Goblin Slayer still felt the need to be insistent on knowing the other method of summoning, the preteen smiled apologetically to Fairy Knight, as he asked again, "What's the other way of summoning a servant?"
Suspecting that something else was a wry, Fairy Knight felt herself growing oddly dreadful as he gazed into the pain-filled eyes of her servant who she had fallen in love with. Swallowing the lump in her throat while trying to push back her own traumatic memories of seeing Lord Aurora looking up at her the same way Goblin Slayer was in that moment, Fairy Knight let out a long-drawn breath before finally answering back, "Through a ritual known as "Heroic Spirit Summon": it's when the collective will of the planet calls upon seven servants to defeat a powerful enemy… Had we had this conversation earlier, I would have told you that this is probably the reason why I… W-What's with that look on your face…? W… What do you know, that you're not telling me…?" Fairy Knight asked in a low, worried voice; as even someone like her felt unnerved by the devastated expression that slowly washed over Goblin Slayer's pale face.
Riddled with more questions than answers to the unraveling mystery that he had been thrown into without ever remembering why he was a participant in the first place, the truth that was unable to help but to seek out had become bleaker. All Goblin Slayer knew as he quietly rolled over on his side was that the Moon-Cell had been called in the same way that the Crimson Moon had been called, and all signs of who was pulling the strings pointed to a man who he only knew snippets about, through memories that might possibly not even belong to him.
Needing time to process the feeling of impending doom that was becoming truer by the passing moment, all that was certain to Goblin Slayer was that he wasn't afraid of what would happen to him, but what would happen to those who he had loved. Even if his existence, and the existence of those around him were uncertain, the love that he felt for them was real; and that's all that he had left to carry on toward the unknown fate that was drawing closer, and closer toward them all.